WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Jim Jeffords, I - Vt., the ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, today expressed his opposition to the Energy legislation currently pending before the U.S. Senate. “Doing nothing would be better for our environment, better for national security and better for the development of renewable energy than moving forward with this energy bill based on ancient history,” said Jeffords at a Capitol Hill press conference. The Energy Policy Act of 2003 provides major new tax incentives to coal, gas and nuclear power-producing industries while requiring no new pollution-control mechanisms designed to protect the public health. Instead of developing alternative, renewable and pollution-free energy resources, the bill enforces continued reliance on dirty, unsustainable fossil fuels. Jeffords said he will be introducing an amendment to add a renewable portfolio standard or “RPS” to the legislation that will require that by the year 2020, 20 percent of our nation's electricity comes from clean renewable energy. This will include solar, wind, geothermal, biomass and ocean energy. Jeffords continued, “This bill, as currently drafted, moves our nation's energy policy in the direction of the stone-age rather than the space-age, more reminiscent of Fred Flintstone than George Jetson.”